As noted in U.S. Pat. No. 5,265,880, Bingo is typically played using a bingo card which contains twenty-five numbered squares laid out in a 5 by 5 grid. Each of the five vertical rows is centered under the letters B-I-N-G-O; seventy-five or ninety numbers are used, with numbers 1-15 being assigned to the first or “B” row, 16-30 to the “I” row, etc. The central square on the bingo card is a typically a free number and is covered by a marker at the beginning of the game.
Winning numbers are typically selected from the group 1-75 or 1-90 by any of many random selection means. As each winning number is drawn, the player scans the card to determine if the number appears on his card, and covers the number if it does appear. The first player to achieve five markers in a row on the card is declared a winner. Historically, bingo has been played as a parlor game, in movie theaters, for church and charity fundraisers, and as a gambling game in licensed casinos.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,823,534 describes a bingo game played by a plurality of players employing a table having respective player stations thereabout. The game permits each player to select each of his or her numbers to be matched during play by randomly drawn numbers, including a wild designation which each player may deem to match one of his or her selected numbers, and the game is permitted to progress at multiple levels of play notwithstanding the occurrence of prior bingos in the game being played.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,265,880 discloses a “blackout” or “coverall” bingo game is played over a long duration, e.g., 24 hours. A fixed number (48-58) of bingo numbers are drawn from the pool of numbers at the beginning of the game and are posted or displayed for players to see. Players may acquire cards at any time during the play of the game and compare the cards with the winning numbers to see if the card is a winning card. Winning cards are paid off at a minimum of 1,000 times the purchase price. The card faces are invisible to the player upon purchase, and can be preprinted, printed by a random generator on demand, or be displayed on video screens.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed.